Forbes cuts ties with columnist

I couldn't get the link to open, but I did some rough math when this thread originally came up.

The Washington Mystics are going to play in a 4,000-seat arena. If they sold out every home game with each person paying the league average ticket price, that would only generate about two thirds of what it would cost to pay 12 players $150,000 each.

 

One thing I love about the Voepel story - and this is rare for ESPN, to not kiss an athlete’s ass - is how she takes apart a laughable Taurasi quote:

This prompted Taurasi, who has spent most of her overseas career in Russia, to provide one of her trademark sound bites. It's humorous and contains a seed of truth, but it also requires disclaimers.

"I've said the WNBA is the most communist business you'll ever be in," she said. "And it's funny, I spent 12 years in a communist country feeling the benefits of a free economy. It's bizarre to me that I've lived in this paradigm. I've lived the American dream somewhere else.

"Now I'm 36 and have played 95 percent of my career, and I can look back on that and say, 'I don't want it to be like that for A'ja and the younger kids coming in.' I want them to stay here in the United States, make a lot of money and be influential in our own country."

However, the WNBA sends its paychecks on time, and they don't bounce. That can't be said for all overseas teams. Plus, the WNBA provides health insurance and a 401(k) program.

Also, the free market in the United States is precisely why the WNBA has had to be so rigid in containing salaries and trying to maintain a level playing field for all its franchises: The league has yet to sell itself to corporate America and the ticket-buying public to the degree it aspires to.

 

In fact, had the WNBA truly been launched into the free market in the United States, it almost certainly would have failed. David Stern subsidized it.

 

Can you elaborate?

 

Much like the WBL in the late 70s-early 80s and the ABL in the mid-90s. See also the numerous attempts at pro women's soccer since the 1999 WWC.

 

Players should advocate for the free market instead of accepting salary caps and a salary structure. Get paid what you are worth.

 

Won't speak for him, but when I went to check I found this Reddit thread about his advanced stat. It's a joke apparently.

 

This is the crux of it, yes. He gives a bad name to stats/analytics guys in basketball by basically embodying all the stereotypes that old-school, anti-stats people like Charles Barkley espouse, about guys with spreadsheets who don't actually watch games and think the formula they came up with is the only valid way of analyzing the game. He is not well-liked among other stats people who actually do watch games and are open to being wrong.